Sorry to ask this first, but What was it like working with the Coen brothers?

(Javier Bardem in Blue… Kelly MacDonald in Red)

JB: When you are with them it’s like talking to one man only. They always agree. They always agree, so it’s boring! No, but don’t put that on the papers, right. [Laughs] It’s good. It’s great, they’re fun. They’re very normal, aren’t they?

KM: They are very normal. It’s weird. If me and my brother had to work together it’d be… ooh [which I assume denotes 'very bad']. Joel and Ethan have a lot of respect for each other and they have the same taste as each other in films. After about five minutes you don’t even notice there’s two of them.

Javier, you usually do extensive work constructing a back story for you chracters. Did you find that hard with someone like Chigurh?

JB: In the book he just appears from nowhere, he’s mysterious. It just didn’t make sense to ask when Chigurh was born, what his mum was like, did he really drink milk. So I spoke to the Coens and decided that to just show what he represents.

So he was more like a machine?

JB: Not really a machine. He is human, and that is scarier.

You look pretty menacing in the poster…

JB: When they sent that to me I thought it was joke! I hate my nose and they know that! [Laughs]

In the film it’s your hair that’s really eye-catching. How did you cope with that?

JB: People usually ask me if it is a wig, but it really was my hair! I was consigned for three months to have that haircut! It was funny to see someone so weird and wonderful with that feminine haircut, but it worked pretty good for the character. On set I started to wear a hairnet but eventually they just kept telling me ‘take that thing off’!’

And Kelly, what was your preparation for Carla like?

KM: I’m not as hard working as Javier. I usually just do what it say! I’m too busy worrying about what is in front of me to think about what she was like when she was five!

You did have to really change your accent though. How did the Coen brothers react to you when you came to read for the part?

KM: I was in New York and my agent said it would be a good idea. I know Joel and Ethan and were trying to cast as close to the area as possible, basically: Texas, apart from the Chigurh character. So, I’m really not that close, geographically. But I jumped through a few hoops, went on tape for the casting director and she said I should met Joel and Ethan. I went to meet Joel and Ethan, and I was just chatting to them before I started reading and they were friendly, but I could see that they were just sort of… they weren’t shruggling, but you know, I could sense it. And then I read the first scene and it all changed!

It must have been nice when Tommy Lee Jones, who comes from the area, complimented your accent?

KM: Yeah, he was the third hoop. It was Ellen Chenoweth, Joel and Ehtan and then I had to get past Tommy. I genuinely was worried about what he would think because he’s a Texas man and it would have been really hard to work with him knowing that he didn’t really think I was doing that great a job. But he was very vocal about it, which I was really grateful for.

JB: I have to say that they were really very right in the way that they cast us. Everything went wrong when Josh Brolin came into the picture. Until that moment, they were right choices.

KM: You’re really missing out on something. There’s a real love story between Josh and Javier and they’re very funny together.

Javier, obviously it’s a bit different for you: is it getting easier for you to act in English?

JB: Well, its getting easier but it’s never going to be the same as it is to perform in Spanish. It’s impossible. But I’m more comfortable, even though it’s difficult to relax in a foreign language. It’s difficult, so you have to do a lot of work. You try to be truthful when you perform, but at the same time you are working on the lines word by word in a way that is very static. Because you know if you want to be understood you have to say it that way. It’s not natural.

KM: Your English is better than mine.

JB: [Laughs] You did an accent, I did a whole language.

Another major part of the film is its landscape which obviously informs a lot of the characters’ actions, did it affect you while you were out there?

KM: It’s just like nowhere else. It’s like landing on a different planet and you find. When the plane landed when I got there it was all red, and then by the time I left it was green. It was really peculiar. I can now understand why that’s where all the sightings of UFOs and things are. And all those mysterious air baes. It’s a very enigmatic place.

JB: Yeah, I felt kind of isolated. Because, as you said, you go there for one day, you kill some people. You go to sleep and then you have like six days free. Where it’s hugely wide open and you feel totally unlocked and you have that haircut! That isolation worked for my character, but really against myself. Thanks to Mr Brolin, who was always knocking on my door, I didn’t take it too much into me. And also had a lot of fun.

Kelly, we heard you misinterpreted the film when you first heard about it, is that right?

KM: I thought the script was quite funny. It was only when I saw the film that I thought ‘oh, it’s quite dark. But the book has a similar sense of humour to Joel and Ethan and I think they brought that out.I

Although we understand Javier had a problem with the amount of violence. Was that the case?

JB: I don’t particularly like violence in movies, unless it is there for a reason. It’s not that i’m a sensitive guy, I just go there and think ‘what’s it for?’Since I was unfamiliar with Cormac McCarthy I was dubious, but I read the book and knew it transcends violence in order to bring violence to the table and to talk about it. There is a difference between a violent movie and a movie about violence.

KM: I think it’s saying how quick it [violence] is. Filmic violence is usually drawn out and glorified. But it isn’t. I just love the way how in this film, they kill a character and you don’t even see it happening. And it’s sudden and it’s kind of true to life. I don’t know about the bigger picture… It’s just saying money isn’t everything.

No Country for Old Men is out on Friday in the U.K.

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THE DARK KNIGHT vs. INDIANA JONES.

Which one tops your must-see list right now?

I think I have to go with Nolan’s flick but to be perfectly honest unless someone could resurrect Sergio Leone from his grave and get him to make films again, I think a Batman movie might be the only franchise that would be more anticipated by me than Harrison Ford as INDY.

The film opens on May 22nd worldwide. Can’t frikkin’ wait.

source - coming soon

Ah the wonders of the Internet. There I was today lying in my bed with my laptop on my chest watching a live stream of the Macworld Convention where Steve Jobs and his crew premiered the latest iTunes update which now carries the ability to rent movies to your hard drive.

The service which will carry movies from all the major studio’s is available right now in the U.S. (”later this year for the U.K.”) and for the cost of just $2.99 (perfect pricing) or $3.99 for new releases (only $1 more for HD versions!) you will have access to stream the movies you want as many times as you like for 24 hours from when you first began watching.

You will be able to watch them on your computer, iPhone and iPod… with only 30 seconds waiting time before your purchase plays on an average broadband connection.

Apple say that over 1,000 titles will be available to download by February and that the newest releases the service will offer is titles that have been out for 30 days already on DVD.

It’s not quite the perfect scenario yet (monthly subscription options, the ability to rent them for longer than a day so commuters who want to watch in small chunks won’t miss out, same day as DVD release, etc.) but it’s a big step towards what will inevitably be the future of film distribution.

Thoughts? Will you use the service? I know I frikkin’ will in a heartbeat.

FULL ARTICLE & PHOTOS ON EVERYTHING THAT WENT DOWN AT MACWORLD HERE.

Jared Leto gained over 65 pounds from simply eating chocolate ice cream non stop in preparation for his role as John Lennon’s killer Mark Chapman, in the upcoming movie chronicling his descent into madness in the three days before committing the cold-blooded murder.

He looks to have put in some amazing work on this movie, titled CHAPTER 27… so called because Chapman held a copy of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE when he killed Lennon, a book that Chapman modelled his life on and that ran only 26 chapters.

The movie played at the Sundance Film Festival last year and was not well received at all, with debut writer/director J.P. Schafer criticised for making a vanity project. The film failed to find a U.S. distributor at first and went straight to DVD in most countries but it’s now been confirmed it will get a run in theatres in the U.S. this March after all.

Lindsay Lohan co-stars as Jude, and in the most bizarre coincidence the person playing Lennon in the movie is called Mark Chapman.

I think this movie looks really strong and Leto looks amazing…

HD-DVD developer Toshiba are pushing out all the stops now in a desperation move to stay alive in this next generation format war.

Now they have lost the majority of their studio backing, Toshiba are attempting to compete with Sony’s Blu-Ray system the only way they can now and that’s in the price department… especially when the titles libarary won’t really start effecting them till the second half of the year.

Yahoo News are reporting that Toshiba HD-DVD players will be cut down in price by a whopping 50% with the hope of catching consumers now before it becomes too late and the public go for Blu-Ray who own the majority of titles. This would render the price tag to be around $150-$200.

On a side note, yesterday I heard that one Toshiba retail store in Cheshire Oaks in the U.K. were offering a good HD-DVD player for just £99, with 5 free HD-DVD’s and a HDMI cable included in the January offer. That’s the best I’ve ever seen it in the U.K. and it’s even more of a bargin when you think you could just use it as an upscale DVD player for your current DVD’s and you can use it to buy such things as BATMAN BEGINS in HD.

FULL ARTICLE ON THIS MATTER HERE.

George A. Romero’s latest addition to his zombie saga, the low-budget hand-held movie DIARY OF THE DEAD has been the least anticipated Romero-zombie fest in recent memory.

The movie has barely earned itself a theatrical release (it will run limited next month in the U.S.) and despite a really killer concept (BLAIR WITCH meets Zombies), the film the trailer makes the horror feature look like a huge disappointment.

Actually that’s not true. A HUGE MONUMENTAL DISAPPOINTMENT is probably more fitting. First George tells us about the film, and then the trailer follows…

Time to face facts people. Romero hasn’t shot a good in over twenty years.

I know he deserves his legendary status because he did so much for the zombie genre but I just don’t think his name can be marketable when his last good film was in 1985.

This looks way worse than LAND OF THE DEAD and from the trailer, it seems that Romero is a director who has ran out of creative ideas. And the thought that he Romero is prepping a sequel to this just makes me even more disinterested.

source - aicn

Ok, I’m confused.

Variety are reporting that Charlize Theron has signed up for a role in John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the brilliant Cormac McCarthy novel THE ROAD.

Ok that’s cool. We like Charlize around here but the strange thing is the trades are still reporting that Viggo Mortensen is in the film… which he was right up until October when it was reported that Guy Pearce had secured the lead role when the LORD OF THE RINGS actor had turned them down.

But hey, I’m happy that Viggo is back. He’s an acting Picasso, a true artist and I will flock to see anything he is in.

Theron’s small role will be that of wife to Mortensen and will only be seen in flashbacks (it’s a post-apocalyptic world, so think I AM LEGEND) and the actress says she isn’t doing it for the part per-say, but because she is a massive fan of the book.

Said book, written by NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN author Cormac McCarthy depicts a guy who takes the nightmare road trip to get his son to safety whilst feeding off cannibals after a nuclear explosion. John Hillcoat is helming (he did the wonderful Western THE PROPOSITION) and is working from a script by Joe Penhall (ENDURING LOVE) with shooting set to begin next month.

Don’t click below if you are sensitive to spoilers regarding CLOVERFIELD, which opens in the U.S. in just a couple of days.

There’s two big spoilers here, so don’t be tempted unless you really wanna know.

Read the rest of this entry »

It would seem that everyone’s favourite German director, the lovable Uwe Boll has directed his last big budget disaster. Never again will he be able to convince the likes of Jason Statham and Ray Liotta to appear in lame fantasy epics because he won’t have the cash to do so.

I mean after all, they weren’t doing it for artistic merit or for the benefit of furthering their career’s.

The Hollywood Reporter say that Boll has lost his financing cash-cow of the German tax-shelter funds which is how he kept getting large amounts of money to make films…. though he never was able to make a profit.

His latest venture, DUNGEON SIEGE: IN THE NAME OF THE KING was the last straw as it grossed just over $3 million last weekend with a large theatrical release and a budget of $70 million!

Here’s Boll, sounding ubeat as usual…

“In the future, I will focus on small films such as (the video game adaptation) ‘Postal’ or (the Vietnam war drama) ‘Tunnel Rats,’ ” he said. “These are films that represent my true passion, and they can be done with small budgets.”

Now Boll will have to do it the old fashioned way like everyone else, and raise money through pitching great projects and money making visions to studio execs. With Boll’s track record of an average FINAL gross of $5 million per film, that’s just not gonna happen for $70 million epics.

Remember this…

The Hollywood Reporter carry the news that the first meeting of Klaatu with a human being in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL will be with a 8 year old kid played by Jaden Smith, the son of Will.

I very much doubt that Smith will be ‘like father, like son’ in the scene but hey, any chance to upload one of my favourite parts of INDEPENDENCE DAY will always be taken by me.

Scott Derrickson (THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE) will direct the sci-fi remake of the classic 50’s movie, with Keanu Reeves (as Klaatu), Jennifer Connelly (scientist Helen Benson), Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm.

The film is currently shooting out in Vancouver.